Micro-interactions are everywhere: in our apps, in our walls, on our computers. Some apps and appliances only consist of a single interaction.

If you care about user experience, you have to care about micro-interactions. If the micro-interactions are bad, the value of major interactions won't matter.

Experience design is paying attention to the big picture as well as the details.

Micro-interactions work really well on small devices and can tie an ecosystem of devices together.

Designing Micro-Interactions

Trigger, rules, feedback, loops & modes. these are all dials you can turn to adjust micro-interactions

Manual Triggers (buttons knobs, dials, swipes) are done deliberately by user. What is the proper control to give a user? Examples: slide to unlock, tilt head up to turn Google Glass on.

System triggers what happens when a set of conditions is met and an action triggers on its own. Examples: turn on Nest thermostat as you com near it, detect phone tilting and offer to turn rotation lock on.

Bring the data forward so people don't have to go diving into a micro-interaction to get it.

Rules are what happens when a micro-interaction is triggered. They determine what can or can't be done.

Don't start from zero. There's always some information you can use to set smart defaults.

Feedback: rules are invisible so the only way we understand them is through feedback.

Use the overlooked: make use of elements that are already present instead of adding more elements.

Speak human: feedback is for people so make sure you are talking to them instead of to computers.

Use long loops: what happens when people trigger many micro-interactions over of time. Change things as the system learns.

Look for micro-interactions in your product experiences. Look at the triggers, rules, feedback, and loops -what can use to optimize it.

Or look for the details everywhere. Treat everything as a micro-interaction. Features can be several micro-intercations woven together.